Jahaziel: Delivered from gang culture to be a radical rapper for Christ

Susanne Martin went to South London to meet up with the hip-hop man who's resisting fame and fortune to rap the Gospel, JAHAZIEL

Jahaziel

It was a hot and beautiful day on the afternoon I hopped on
the Underground down to South London to meet British holy hip-hop
artist Jahaziel. But
the stifling journey was made worthwhile when I sat on his leather
couch and heard the eye-opening story of the rapper's deliverance from
the capital's dreadful drugs, guns and gangs culture. Now of course
this most talented of MCs, who first gained attention as Solid
R.O.C.K. and who rapped on Daniel Bedingfield's album debut, is now
creating a buzz with his solo project 'Ready To Live'. Having
previously worked with acts Craig David and Lemar it's crystal clear
that Jahaziel has
enough talent to be successful in the mainstream, yet courageously he
has chosen the gospel hip-hop route. Said the rapper, "I was given
this gift for a purpose. God took me from nothing to something and he
wanted to do something with this. I would be a sell out to now just
take it like it's mine and try and use it for my gain."

Jahaziel reckons he
must have told the testimony of how he became a Christian a million
and one times. Even with a vague picture of his life before and after
the event, it's not hard to understand why people want to keep hearing
about it. So for a new record I asked the rapper to tell me about the
times leading up to his conversion. Growing up in Elephant &
Castle, London, he was always mixing with bad company and was often in
trouble with the Police. He told me, "It wasn't like I meant to hang
around with people who were into all that kind of stuff but it just
seemed those were the people that lived on my estate and who were my
friends and my family. Those were just the people that I was around
and when you're around people it's like you have to prove yourself all
the time. Most people want to fit in. If I was with a crowd of nerdy
computer guys I'd have been into computers. But I was around guys who
were violent and selling drugs, and so I had to do that to be in with
them. That's just how it was."

The troubled teenager was made to
change secondary schools five times, but that was no way near the
worst of it. He started to hang around with older gang members who
were into major crime and carried guns. As Jahaziel's problems stacked up he believed
he was destined to end up in prison or dead. He told me about one
particular night that he remembers very well. He said, "I was staying
at this guy's house who used to supply us with drugs; he was in
hospital because he got stabbed. The guy who stabbed him was going to
come and burgle his house. So me and another guy were looking after it
for him when he phoned and said he had something for us in case the
guy turns up. So we looked in this bag and he had a sawn-off shotgun
and a loaded hand gun. This is the first time I'd ever had a gun in my
hand. I thought to myself, 'I just hope this guy doesn't turn up,'
because if he did, the guy I was with wanted to shoot someone just to
get his name up. Plus, I just knew that a) I'd have to live with
killing someone on my conscience for the rest of my life, and b) I'd
probably get caught and go to prison for the rest of my life. I sat
there and I thought, 'How did I end up here?' Thank God the guy didn't
turn up."

Continued the rapper, "But when I was walking home I just started to
cry, I was crying my eyes out. When I got in I just knelt on my bed
and I prayed the Lord's Prayer. 'Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be your name. . .' and at the end of it, the only thing
personal I said was, 'Lord, if you're real, guide me. Amen.' Then I
heard the phone ring. About a month before I met this guy who
explained to me that he was a Christian, he shared some of his faith
with me and he took my number. It was him that called me then and
said, 'Do you want to come to church tomorrow?' Prior, when he talked
to me before, I was unsure. But when I'd just prayed and asked God to
guide me and he phoned immediately, I just knew it was not
coincidence. So I gave him the benefit of the doubt and I went that
Sunday and I made a confession of faith that Sunday. That was 14 or 15
years ago."

Gradually he noticed that from that day something had changed in him.
"At first I went back to hanging around with the same people, smoking
weed, going to raves. But from the very day onwards I felt convicted.
I'd go to smoke and everything just seemed wrong. It seemed wrong, it
tasted wrong, it felt wrong, everything was just wrong. And I knew
then that God had made a change in my heart and the only way I was
going to live in peace was to follow my heart." He started to change
his company and became good friends with Christian rap group
GreenJade. They encouraged Jahaziel to use his lyrical talent,
something that he admits he wasn't into until he knew Jesus. "Before I
was a Christian, I never really had anything to talk about," he said.
"I used to lie in most of my raps about cars I didn't own, girls that
I didn't have, about money and stuff like this. I got to the point
where I was just like, 'Nah, I can't be bothered with it, it's not
serious.' But when I became a Christian and the more I started to
learn about God and the Bible that I found I had things to talk about
and a perspective to talk from. So I started to write stuff. Then over
the first couple of years the Lord opened doors for me and I went to
California, Norway, France and around the UK. I was thrown right in
the deep end. I think the first gig I did to an audience was opening
for Delirious?. But I didn't have a clue who they were and I didn't
have a clue what I was doing! It was a bit like that."

Over the last few years Jahaziel's considerable
rapping skills have given him the chance towork with UK hitmakers
Lemar, Bedingfield, David and Asian R&B singer, Raghav. He also
recorded an EP, 'Blow The Trumpet', under his previous moniker Solid
R.O.C.K. which got some Cross Rhythms radio play. But it's only now
with the 'Ready To Live' album, distributed by Spirit Music, that the
Christian CD buyers have a chance to buy Jahaziel's hard-hitting holy hip-hop. He
said, "I was flirting with the idea of doing mainstream stuff and I
did a lot of remixes. In the space of about 12 to 13 months I must've
done about 50 features on other people's stuff with a company called
Blacksmith. I got a couple of breaks. I did a video for Raghav's
single. I think that went to about number 13 in the charts. So I was
kind of on the fringe of starting to approach labels. I was at that
fork in the road when I started to feel really convicted that I was
given this gift for a purpose, more than making money. I know
Christian producers who do stuff for all top mainstream artists and I
hollered at them to do my album but they just took so long! I think
what it showed me is that this whole mainstream thing, not that I'm
against it, if that's your decision than that's your decision, but I
felt like their offering to God was becoming more and more diminished.
I didn't want to become like that, like God only had two per cent, if
that, of my time and my talents. So I wanted to flip that and trust
that God would provide my needs."

Jahaziel is
determined to resist the siren voices of the mainstream which lead to
excess and spiritual compromise. "You get an artist like Puff Daddy or
whoever, who says, 'I give thanks to my Lord and Saviour.' But I
wonder are they painting an accurate picture of the Christ follower?
Are they accurately reflecting this man called Jesus? The more I got
to know God and the more I got to know what Jesus is about the more I
felt these guys are not even just making a POOR reflection of him, I
think it's like an absolute distortion. It's as far left as it can be.
God wants to send people out to be a reflection, to shine his light in
dark places, and I felt that in hip-hop he was under-represented. I
know in the US there are guys that are further ahead down the line
with what I'm doing. The Christian hip-hop scene is more together in
the States. But over here in the UK it's still very underground, still
developing. I'm probably one of a handful of Christian hip-hop artists
who have even put out an album. So I felt like I needed to represent
and set a bar, to set a standard, as far as letting the world know
that not every rapper has to rap about cash and violence and guns and
whatever. I can make good music with good content. I wanted to do
that. And hopefully I did."

It looks like there is a lot more to expect from Jahaziel in the near
future. At the moment he's planning a new album, do a mega amount of
collaborations and use his Jamaican roots to record a
reggae-orientated project in between. In November he's heading to
Florida to perform at the Christian hip-hop event Flavor Fest. But
hopefully he'll be back in London before long and will continue to
lead the way for British hip-hop to leave behind the guns and
gangsters and present a more radical, life-changing message.

The opinions expressed in this article are
not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed
views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may
not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a
later date.

Loving your music bro. I just came across "I'm Alive remix"
you did with Ambassador and Da Truth, who are two of my
absolute favorite artists. Loved it. Most definitely keep
using your God given gift for God.

he has inspired me to know what to do right in life also i
am doing a project on tennagers need protection and its all
about gun and knife crime in Btec Art & Desing if i keep
heading towards my goal hopfully i will be the one to finish
at the Fiish Line!

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